172 4 Les Miserables
‘To England. Shall you go?’
‘Why do you say you to me?’
‘I ask you whether you will go?’
‘What do you expect me to do?’ she said, clasping her
hands.
‘So, you will go?’
‘If my father goes.’
‘So, you will go?’
Cosette took Marius’ hand, and pressed it without re-
plying.
‘Very well,’ said Marius, ‘then I will go elsewhere.’
Cosette felt rather than understood the meaning of these
words. She turned so pale that her face shone white through
the gloom. She stammered:—
‘What do you mean?’
Marius looked at her, then raised his eyes to heaven, and
answered: ‘Nothing.’
When his eyes fell again, he saw Cosette smiling at him.
The smile of a woman whom one loves possesses a visible
radiance, even at night.
‘How silly we are! Marius, I have an idea.’
‘What is it?’
‘If we go away, do you go too! I will tell you where! Come
and join me wherever I am.’
Marius was now a thoroughly roused man. He had fallen
back into reality. He cried to Cosette:—
‘Go away with you! Are you mad? Why, I should have
to have money, and I have none! Go to England? But I am
in debt now, I owe, I don’t know how much, more than ten